


CRAB BATTLE

by kidcomrade



Category: Vagrant Story
Genre: Ashley Riot's weapons/the faces of giant crab monsters, Ashley Riot/giant monster violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-28
Updated: 2012-12-28
Packaged: 2017-11-22 17:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/612154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kidcomrade/pseuds/kidcomrade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ashley Riot fights a giant crab and, uh, that's about it. What is a plot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	CRAB BATTLE

In its breath was a rattle like death and the stench of old blood.

This must’ve been the cause of all those destroyed corpses further up the hallway…

Ashley, forced to drop the halberd he'd just picked up, fell back upon a wall; instead, he readied his other weapon, a wooden crossbow: he drew a bolt, pulled the string taut.

The sound of its legs alone had been enough to alert him of its presence; the exoskeleton-covered leg fell one after the other, an arrhythmic noisy clattering of leg upon leg upon leg upon ruined stone and crumbled catacomb. He craned his neck around the corner for one more glimpse. It towered above him, beetle-black eyes nearly scraping the dusty ceiling but searching; muscular and thick claws click-clacking, seeking flesh to rend, bone to snap. Its dull shell did not shine in the dim light, layered with dirt and rubble as it was, but it was like an armor. Too tough to fight head-on. Impenetrable. Impossible.

…Truthfully, he’d fought worse.

He fired a single warning shot: one bolt, glancing right off the slightly rounded top of its upper shell. It did nothing, but seized the beast’s attention, which was, really all he’d wanted: the clattering stopped, the eyes began their task of searching searching  _searching._   Good—it was still now, even more an unwitting target than before. With a fraction of a moment to aim again and an even smaller one to shoot he fired his bow, right into the glinting darkness of its eye.

Luckily for him, he was a good shot.

The monster screamed—literally  _screamed_ , a shrill shriek as the legs tripped and stumbled over each other, half-blind and streaming a foul-smelling dark liquid from one eye. Now? It was time to  _move_. The world tilted forward as he took a step, leaned, readied a third bolt of his crossbow; he rushed toward it, dodged around legs and clumsy snaps of its claws, nearly catching a foot in one once; he drew back, fired once more into the underbelly. It screeched again. But this time, it tumbled further: it was drawn to its knees on one side. The thing was kneeling, lopsided.

He’d only have a narrow window for this next blow. Grabbing the discarded halberd and letting the bow clatter to the floor, he surged forward-- with a shout and every bit of strength he had behind it, he drove the metal tip into the monster's stomach.

That did it. Its limbs jerked erratically, then, somewhere within the shell, something burst, and another thing broke, stopped flowing. It twitched once more, and was still.  

Grunting with the effort, he withdrew his weapon from its body. He turned his back, and moved further into the underground city.


End file.
